CEO Brian Rolapp Remains Silent as PGA Tour’s Historic Season Opening Course Slowly Dies

For more than twenty-five years, the PGA Tour has started its season at Kapalua Resort in Maui, Hawaii. The Plantation Course, with its wide fairways and sweeping views of the Pacific, has become one of the Tour’s most recognizable backdrops. But now it stands eerily silent. Even forcing the general manager of Kapalua Golf and Tennis, Alex Nakajima, to say, “The golf course has been damaged with no water for months. I proposed to the owner that we need to shut the golf course to increase our chances to save the golf course and the tournament.” And the reason?

Since July 25, 2025, Kapalua’s Plantation and Bay courses have been left without irrigation water. The fairways have turned from green to yellow and brown, forcing resort officials to announce a 60-day closure beginning September 2. The shutdown is a last-ditch effort to save the grass and keep alive hopes of hosting The Sentry, the PGA Tour’s $20 million season-opening event scheduled for January 2026.

For now, Kapalua’s staff is using what little water remains to fertilize and recover turf. But as Nakajima puts it, the challenge is urgent, “We have to do this immediately. Every day the golf course is dying.” This crisis stems from a dispute over the Honokohau Stream and Ditch System, which is a century-old water delivery system that carries water from the West Maui mountains to Kapalua and nearby properties.

Kapalua’s owner and the founder of the clothing brand Uniqlo, Tadashi Yanai, along with homeowners and farmers, have sued Maui Land & Pineapple.

Their lawsuit states, “MLP has knowingly … allowed the Ditch System to fall into a state of demonstrable disrepair. That disrepair, not any act of God, or force of nature, or other thing, is why users who need it are currently without water.” MLP, however, says the problem isn’t neglect but record-low stream flows, and that it has already made repairs as needed by state regulators. The lawsuit now sits in state court, with both sides exchanging blame.

But while the fight over water plays out on Maui, another silence is just as striking; the one coming from the very top of the PGA Tour.

The Kapalua resort is silent, and so is the PGA Tour leadership

Neither Commissioner Jay Monahan nor newly appointed CEO Brian Rolapp has spoken publicly about Kapalua’s crisis, even though this event has been one of the Tour’s anchors since 1999. The only official comment so far has been a short statement noting that the Tour was “monitoring” the situation and staying in touch with Sentry Insurance, Kapalua officials, and local authorities.

This withholding of comment is striking, given that The Sentry, set for January 8–11, 2026, is not just a seasonal opener but one of the ‘signature events’ in the PGA Tour. with a $20 million purse and significant economic impact for Maui, estimated at $50 million or more annually.

To further add to the irony, Rolapp, four weeks into being appointed as the PGA TOUR CEO, sent a clear message, “I said when I took the job that I would take it with a clean sheet of paper… We’re going to honor tradition, but we will not be overly bound by it.” Is saving the legendary course not a part of that tradition? The Sentry has been held in that course for over 72 years, and has been part of the PGA Tour for 25 years. its definitely steeped in a lot of tradition concerning golf and the Tour.

PGA’s stance on the matter is unclear, and the further it extends, the further Kapalua will remain abandoned. Over the next two months, the resort’s plans to revive the course are a huge concern, because if they’re successful, it will all be good. But if they fail, with a resolution from both sides uncertain, well, let’s hope we do not come to that day. Between the lawsuits, the grass turning yellow, and Alex Nakajima’s comments, the PGA’s silence is deafening.